Tokugawa no Haiku
by Accela
Summary: The reign and fall of the Royal Family and the Tokugawa, and above all, twist in history. All fictional, most.
1. Chapter 1 The Caged Bird's Wish

Though I do not want  
To live on in this floating world,  
If I remain here,  
Let me remember only  
This midnight and this moonrise.  
- Emperor Sanjo  
  
Tokugawa no Haiku: Chapter 1 - The Caged Bird's Wish  
  
Characters:  
- Emperor Komei  
- Tokugawa Iemochi  
- Princess Kazunomiya (Komei's sister; Iemochi's wife)  
- Kashiwazaki Nenji (Okina)  
- Sadojima Nien (Related to Sadojima Houji?)  
- Makimachi Marou (Misao's father)  
  
Deep in the palace evening, two servants stood beside the closed doors awaiting for any sudden orders from their busy master. Emperor Komei, a deep looking man of 36 sat by a candle reading a letter from his little brother-in-law, the shogun troubled by the news of the Choshu and Satsuma clans gaining power day by day. He remembered the 16 year old boy visited him out of the blue one fine day and discussed about the influence of western powers, and of course about his right hand man murdered. The second most powerful man in Japan, aside from the shogun. He was troubled, not by trivial things a man of his age should have but by matters of the state, and decided to share with the Emperor Komei! He was so pleased that he gave his sister to that boy. He quickly finished the letter and laid it aside.. How he wished those two rebel clans would just vanished once and for all, and leave him, and his heir alone.  
  
Kagoshima isles, not more than a week later, a small group of assassins gathered secretly to murder the chief financial advisor of the Satsuma clan under the leadership of Kashiwazaki Nenji under the promise of more authority and faith for their organization, the Oniwabanshuu. It is dark, the murky waters around the port provided perfect cover for the dark clothed assassins. The Satsuma bred the best warriors in Japan, the assassins must be careful not be spotted. A Shanghai pirate ship arrived from the western waters bringing goods and gold for trade, one of the sources of wealth for the powerful Satsuma Clan. The assassins move within the cover of the small vessel, crawling around the port and sneak into the main office. Their training paid off, its time to bring glory for their gang. A guard walks in suddenly, unsuspecting the dagger reaching out from behind, breathe his last without making a sound. Nenji sighs, before creeping into the bedroom where the victim is likely to be; sleeping. One of the assassins hops over beside the bed and gave the sleeping man a deadly stab.. "Its fake!" The assassin grasp and they quickly exited from the window, only to find themselves surrounded.  
  
"You are not going anywhere, you idiots. Haha!" An aging man in western suit seems to be the leader, "I, Sadojima Nien, will never.. never be killed by brainless fools such as you! Get them!" The warriors charges at the group. Nenji orders the men to disperse, before throwing himself at Nien. A blade cuts through his back. One of the assassins rolled under him and carried the badly injured Nenji away. They ran, as waves of Satsuma warriors tore through the forest, gunshots wizzing past their ears. An assassin fell to a flying bullet, the rest continue, quickly hiding their trails, they hid silently on the trees. The cold icy air cuts through their wounds, they might close conciousness anytime. The Satsuma warriors with their torches prowl the scrubs below, the assassins hugged the trees like.. err.. tree huggers? Hours seem to pass, the Satsuma warriors doesn't seem to be giving up, suddenly it starts to snow and the men below went back. 9 assassins went in, only 4 survived. It is already daylight.  
  
Around the same time, a small roadside stall just outside of Kyoto, a man sat on the bench with a jug of sakae, drinking, enjoying the sunrise. "Thank you." The young boss, bowed as his customer leaves down the dusty road. The thin snow only serves to strengthen the deep taste of the wine, the man takes another sip. He notices a small trail of smoke to the east, and a road leading to it. He stops and screw his jug tight. A caravan was surrounded by bandits, a common occurance during those times, when the people lost trust in their government. Some girls, around three of them, and a boy huggled in one corner as the bandits move menacing towards them, taking pleasure on their victims' fear. Their swords drawn, and slashes their victims all at once. It is customery not to leave any survivals, as a sign of luck for those robbers. Light flashes around, as the bandits were cut up by something they themselves couldn't see. The man stops beside the boy, the unlucky survival that the bandits missed."There is a town, not far west from here. I'll see if anyone wants to take you in. Stay here." The man said, before making his way west. The boy kneeled down, looking at the girls that sacrificed their lives for him. He stood up, took a spade and started digging.. One by one, he burried the bodies. He took some brunches, and carefully marks every grave till he ran out of brunches so he took some boulders and place them on the bodies of the girls.  
  
Hours later, the man returned. He found the boy beside the graves of the girls, more specifically their marking are stone so he guessed they must be special to him. "Did you buried them?" "Yes." "Are they your family?" "No, they are a human traders, those girls are slaves." "Why did you buried the bandits too?" "They are all the same, after they die." "What is your name?" "Shintai." "It's too soft for a samuria, lets call you Kenshin from now on." "Huh?" "You are going learn kenjutsu from me, Kenshin. I am Hiko Seijuro." The pair walks into the sunset, just like what happened in the show, go imagine.  
  
Shogun Iemochi walks around restlessly, his aides kneeled down in front of him. "You mean those assassins failed to kill him!?" He angrily pounded his desk. "Increase the rewards!" "Yes, but.." "Go! Get out!" He swing his arm, his aides rushes out of the room in fear. "Don't be so angry, my lord." His wife, Princess Kazunomiya calms the man down, "I'm sure they will do their job." Things didn't fare well at the Oniwabanshuu bases at Tokyo either, the chief Makimachi Marou was upset about their failure to accomplish the job, and the injury of his friend. "If this goes on, the rebels will crush both the Tokugawa and the Emperor in no time, we have to act fast!" From his bed, Nenji spoke softly. "There must be a spy beside the shogun, otherwise they couldn't have known.. We had exclusive rights for this job from the shogun." "You're right.." Marou pouts by the window."Who could it be?"  
  
Secretly that year, the Choshu started gathering weapons and guns from Shanghai's illegal armsmerchants, Satsuma and other rebel clans in exchange for large amount of rice and gold.. 


	2. Chapter 2 The Strings of the Puppets

Truly, this is where  
Travelers who go or come  
Over parting ways--  
Friends or strangers--all must meet:  
The gate of "Meeting Hill."  
- Semimaru  
  
Tokugawa no Haiku: Chapter 2 - The Strings of the Puppets  
  
Characters:  
- Emperor Komei  
- Tokugawa Iemochi  
- Makimachi Marou (Misao's father)  
- Kashiwazaki Nenji (Okina)  
- Aki Fujiwqara (Noble, Militery Advisor)  
- Senjirou Hito (Satsuma's Tactician)  
  
July 1864, the Oniwa and several other intelligence agencies received news of Choshu getting ready for a sudden attack of Edo, planning to overthrow the shogun and dominates the nation. Immediately, they report it to the shogun and his advisors. One of those advisors suggested rather than using massive numbers of troops to guard against Edo, they should withdraw troops from the Royal Palace to protect Edo, this way other rebel clans will not have a chance to attack other important locations. As for the royal family, the rebel clans are not expected to attack the emperor's palace since they go by the slogan, Sonno Joi - revere the emperor, expel the barbarians. Makimachi Marou, then, was against the decision. Kashiwazaki Nenji told Makimachi Nien a night before, "It is strange that the Choshu should attack Edo without any support from its allies, I suspect something is wrong." but he was in no position to defy direct orders so he secretly sent a small team of agents to follow the clues.  
  
Sure enough, on a fateful night of August, a surprise attack from the Choshu landed but not on the Shogun but on the Emperor's palace. Ironically, they believed the Emperor was in control by the minions of the Shogun and his aides so they planned to rescue the Emperor from the clutches of evil and save the kingdom. Suddenly men from Satsuma came in from nowhere and joined in the fight. The battle raged on for hours, buildings, homes, mansions and shinto shrines around the palace were burnt to the ground. The last few remaining guards protecting the palace was in no shape to defend themselves, let alone the emperor. It dawned at that momment was that the Satsuma Clan was fighting for the side of the Tokagawa and Komei. Leading the Satsuma warriors was Senji Hiro, a tactician from the Satsuma's clan.  
  
At the same time, the small backroom in the royal palace, several guards protecting the Crown Prince Mutsuhito are murdered by assassins, they grab the prince but a dagger struck into one of the assassins' neck and several Oniwa agents fell into place and rescued the prince. More guards came in, the Oniwa agents escaped. In the front garden, Choshu men were backstab by Satsuma's gunfires, the small victory here reflects the outcome of the entire battle. Most of the Choshu men were shot dead, several commited suicide; only one remains. The battle came to a halt at sunrise, troops from the Tokugawa arrived and the representation of Satsuma Clan was welcomed into Edo. A few days later, a decree from the Shogun came down into the Oniwabanshuu main base in Edo. "By the decree of the Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi, the leader of the Oniwabanshuu, Makimachi Marou shall surrender himself for punishment for defying direct orders and shall be held responsibility for the attack on Crown Prince Mutsuhito and possible alliance with the rebels of Choshu." As loyal as ever, he gave himself in, and locked up in jail under close supervision in Edo.  
  
"How is that possible!?" Kawshiwazaki Nenji sat down on the ground, deep in thought. "We saved the prince! How can they claim that we tried to attack him!" "Yeah! The Shogun is blind!" "Shut up!" Nenji shouted, "There must be something else.." "It must be Satsuma's spies, I know many nobles have sided with them secretly. Satsuma must have used this event to gain trust from the Shogun and remove their rivals." "Right, and with their people within the government, they are able to turn the tables to their own advantage." "How can we prove their misdeeds?"  
  
4 days from the battle, Kashiwazaki Nenji visited Makimachi Marou secretly in jail, it was Tuesday morning. "The shogun is a fearful man, despite his age, Nenji. Wait paitently." That was all the old man said, Nenji sat in the tavern, sipping tea as he ponder upon the words. A young begger crawl beneath him and begs for some loose coins. The owner of the tavern spots the boy, drag him out and give him one trashing. Nenji stops him, and gives the boy some coins. The boy ran away happily. Suddenly, it dawned upon Nenji that he have not really looked at the everyday lives around him. The prostitutes lurking in the entertainment district, clearly farmgirls sold to pay their family debts with all their country accent and vulgars. The country is devestated after the famines, and the people still live in hell-like state. "Am I really fighting for the right side?" He wondered to himself, quietly as he recalls cases of people eating human flesh just to stay alive in a northen remote village just a year ago, it was a horrible sight. Shaking his head, he kept his purse and his sword. And all the while the Tokugawa and the upper classes enjoy their lives on others misery.  
  
At the beginning of September of the same year, the reginments of Nabeshima was attacked and overtaken by Choshu clearly proven the threated posed by Choshu is alive and well but at the same time, it also reenforced the trust of the Satsuma by the Tokugawa government. The people on the streets are saying, "The rebels will not stay long, the Tokugawa have the help of the Satsuma Clan." and faith in the government increases slightly. The militery advisor, Aki Fujiwara, presented the idea of bring troops from Satsuma into Osaka in protecting any future conflicts with Choshu warriors since they have the biggest influence in Hiroshima and Kochi but only manage to bring the shogun into "considering" this proposal. However, it does prove that the government advisors are already ready to believe in the Satsuma cause and this is very dangerous especially for the Tokugawa. To counter this, the shogun brought in troops from Aizu, the most loyal state under the Tokugawa, into Osaka instead while he plans to take on Shikoku from sea from his own forces.  
  
The Satsuma clans are not sitting ducks either, although their troops are not allowed to be in Edo, they have sent their men secretly while their spies infiltrate the government offices. Nobles especially who defaulted to their side in promise of power in the new government aided behind enemy lines, and with the Oniwabanshuu crippled, their chance is here. Their plan was to secretly fuel Choshu with weapons while nodding quietly towards the Tokugawa and the Emperor, and they will reap the fruits no matter which side wins. They know, they have the upmost authority over illegal arms sales throughout the region. It is a hard time for normal people, spies are everywhere and no matter which side you are on, you will get into trouble for saying the slightest words. The Oniwabanshuu especially, had to keep a low profile, simply vanished from the scene for a period of time.  
  
Less than a week passed, the Shogun requested the Lord of Choshu, Lord Mori to surrender himself for punishment but he naturally refused so Shogun Iemochi had to plan for militery actions, something Satsuma wanted. And it is also clear that the Emperor Komei was in favor of the Tokugawa, by bringing their families closer through marrige, Emperor Komei has incidently passed on his royal heritage to the Tokugawa thus making himself expendable for someone is there to continue the bloodlines. A mistake he will regret in the future..   
  
PS: Kenshin is still training somewhere. XD 


End file.
